craft lesson 10

Fleischman, Paul. Time Train. Illus. Clair Ewart. New York, NY: HarperCollins,1991.

This book is about a class who takes a field trip to learn about dinosaurs. When one of the kids tells the conductor that they are taking the train to learn about dinosaurs the conductor puts the children and their teacher on a special train. The children soon learn that they are not on an ordinary train. As the train travels they pass back through time. The pictures in the book suggest what time period the children are passing through. When the exit the train they can't find their lodge so they sleep on the ground. The next morning they see their first dinosaur. The next few days they spend their time studying dinosaurs in their natural habitat.

I liked this book. It was appropriate for pre-k through second grade students. There wasn't much factual information about the time periods the children traveled through, or about dinosaurs. However, it was a good introduction to these topics. After reading this book I think kids might be encouraged to discover more about dinosaurs and different time periods. There are many questions kids might have after reading this book. It was a fun book that excites the imagination. It would be a good book to read before the studying dinosaurs. The illustrations were colorful and enjoyable. I think that after reading this book many students might want to travel back in time to play with dinosaurs themselves.

Craft lesson:

For this craft lesson I would fill the sand table with sand. Then I would bury different types of dinosaurs in the sand. I would invite the student to look in the sand and see what they could find. We would then talk about the different dinosaurs they found. We might talk about the names of the dinosaurs, what they ate, and what type of environment they might have lived in.